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This Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday so a special breakfast for your family might seem impossible, but not if you follow these quick and easy tips. Armed with my heart shaped cookie cutters of varying sizes I can show my heartfelt sentiments with morning canapes which are some of the easiest and fastest things you can possibly make.

These ideas can also be easily adapted into sandwiches for the lunch boxes (children LOVE them) or appetizers for your romantic dinner for two or even include all your children to celebrate your family’s love.

Here’s just a sampling of the variations you can make in little more time than it takes for your toaster to pop up.

I took this nifty little quiz to find out what romantic movie I am, and it came up with Much Ado About Nothing. I missed this movie when it came out in 1993, but it’s based on the Shakespearean comedy, and I love his comedies. It also has several good Hollywood veterans so how can I go wrong? I’ll just have to see this movie.

Let romance work for you on Valentine’s Day and year-round. It’s not always the expensive gifts that will show you care. Quite often, it’s the little ways. What’s a big diamond if you don’t even pay attention to each other? Here are 13 tested and approved ways to show your loved ones you truly care about them. They will work for you too.

Write a love letter (see this wonderful sample at Pensieve — it got him the girl and 20+ years later, it’s still her favorite valentine of all time);

Write a poem;

Take your loved one to a picnic on the beach, park or some pleasant, but secluded spot;

Rent romantic movies, make a fire in the fireplace, dim the lights, make or buy a tiny cake for two or dip some strawberries in chocolate, serve some sparkling apple cider in crystal flutes; (Here’s a lovely Valentine dessert recipe!)

Read or recite poetry while you massage your loved one’s feet. Shelley and Tennyson are very romantic! Get a tiny book edition to make it easy to hold in one hand.

Make a special dinner for two. Think small portions and ingredients you don’t use everyday. Don’t go out to a crowded, noisy, expensive restaurant. Where’s the romance in that?

Also for the lunch bag or briefcase or even the front seat of the car, place a few Hugs and Kisses chocolates in a decorative cellophane bag or other pretty container with a promise for more at home. More chocolates for a child or more … for a spouse — that’s up to you;

Do a chore your loved one would normally have to do (Do it well!! Don’t make your loved one have to redo it or clean up your mess. The thought only counts so far in this case.);

Remember the phrase “As you wish” from “The Princess Bride”? It meant “I love you.” Use it or come up with your own phrase and see how quickly your bride or prince charming figures out what you truly mean.

Pick out a novel with a romantic love story or subplot and read it to your loved one or to each other before bedtime;

Give a vase or box full of 365 heart-shaped slips of paper. On each heart write a reason why you are in love, a compliment, an “I love you,” a promise for a kiss, etc. and fold in half. Each day, for an entire year, your loved one gets to open a heart. You can make it as platonic or as explicit as your relationship allows.

Make the decision to make your loved one happy year-round. Base all your actions on whether it would make your loved one happy. It will do wonders for your relationship and soon, without even realizing it, your loved one will reciprocate. 🙂

What are some of your ideas for showing your love on Valentine’s Day?
For more tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer and for more lists of lucky thirteens, visit Thursday Thirteen.

Russell Crowe, 43, Academy Award Winner, told Men’s Journal in the upcoming December 2007 issue that he wants to be baptized this year at the same time as his 1-year-old son, Tennyson, in the Byzantine chapel he built on his Australian ranch for personal contemplation and expanded in 2003 for his wedding to actress-singer Danielle Spencer.

“I’d like to do it this year. If I believe it is important to baptize my kids, why not me?” he says.

Crow, who starred in “Gladiator,” “Beautiful Mind” and currently “American Gangster” with Denzel Washington, has shown deep spirituality and romance when he first built a small wooden chapel on his ranch because he felt the need for a sacred place for personal contemplation. His brother was married in the wooden chapel.

“I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of man. There is something much bigger that drives us all. I’m willing to take that leap of faith.”

Later he would add on a 26-foot dome, inspired by the Roman skyline and his visits to Paris, for his bride-to-be. In an interview for the Oprah Show in 2003, he said, hinting at the future, “This is a great place. … Now we can host christenings and other marriages. Maybe my son’s wedding. That would be interesting.”

The circular portion of the chapel, circular to “create a circle of friends,” is made of stone with stained glass windows ,and on the floor is a mosaic from the second century A.D. Crow says the chapel has been consecrated. His wedding was officiated by a bishop, and his oldest son, Charlie, 3, has already been baptized in the chapel.

“I remember standing in the chapel, and just as the bishop started talking, the afternoon sun hit the center of that stained glass window and just ran up Daniel’s dress in golds and reds and blues. … It was gorgeous,” he said on Oprah’s television show.

Crowe told Men’s Journal that his parents had not baptized him because they had wanted their children to make their own decisions regarding the sacrament and God.

Although speaking of faith and God could be particularly damaging in the liberal, atheistic, Hollywood mind-set, Crowe has taken a Christian stand that he does believe in God, that baptism matters to him and that he is not afraid to let the world know about his spirituality.

Don’t know what NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo are? Read all about it here and here.